The Background Project c:

Another project we were set a few days ago was a background project :3 

We were given the task to do create (either on paper or through a painting program), two animation backgrounds based on our storyboarding project (mine being Ranger Rick) 

Below are both my interior and exterior, final backgrounds c: 

My two main style influences for this project were Kekai Kotaki, Concept artist for Guild Wars 2 and Michel Gagne, one of my big animation inspirations :3

I loved the style of Kekai Kotaki's work, particularly how he used colours to portray depth in his art. Kekai's art was my main influence in both my final backgrounds. I really liked how this artist used brushes quite roughly, whilst still getting details into his paintings. I chose to use some of these brush techniques in my backgrounds and really liked how they turned out.

I looked at other Guild Wars 2 illustrators as well, that similarly used colours and depth in a beautiful way. The Guild Wars 2 concept art as a whole was one of my big inspirations during this project.

Gagne's work was another huge inspiration to me. I loved how his art was simple, yet had quite an atmosphere to them. I particularly liked how far close up parts in his work were made a lot darker than things in the distance. His art is very built up, layer wise, you can tell the depth of things however it looks quite graphicy which wasn't something I wanted from my backgrounds although I made sure to keep his work as an influence when representing things close up, lightening them as
they got further away. This technique really applied to my interior scene, where the colours of the further away trees changed to a lighter tone.

I think I was able to incorperate the style of both of them into my work alright, however, I think I could've worked a little harder on making Michel Gagne's style come out in the backgrounds, as it's hard to tell (particularly with the exterior background)

I really enjoyed the background project, it was enjoyable and got me doing something different, digital painting is quite rewarding and I'm pleased with the outcomes, particularly the interior shot :D